Robotics factory opening was a vision of Wearside’s future

Wearsiders were given a vision of the future at the opening of a new factory.

Robots are expected to be used in Nissan’s projected plant on the old Sunderland airport site.

The point was made by Takuro Endo, managing director of Nissan’s Murayama plant on the outskirts of Tokyo, one of the most advanced in Japan.

On a tour of the production line making Nissan’s March model, he showed how robots were moving into the final assembly stage for tasks until recently considered too delicate for anything other than human hands.

One machine picks up a rear window glass with suction pads from the top of a stack, waits with it for a second as though in thought, then slaps it unerringly into the waiting frame.

Adhesive already poured on the rubber mounting by another robot secures the window firmly in place.

Other robots install dashboards, position seats and fit in batteries, jobs previously considered too fussy for machines.

“The next stage is for machines to fit tyres and install axles, a job which now requires a human to work uncomfortably on his back,” Endo told reporters. Much of the new equipment may find its way to Nissan’s Wearside plant, which is expected to start limited operations in 1986 and full production in 1990.